A study on the industrial agglomeration structure of four cities in the Tohoku region and the value added and the number of employees using statistical methods

Abstract

This study statistically examined the industrial cluster structure of four cities in the Tohoku region (Yonezawa, Koriyama, Iwaki, and Aizuwakamatsu) in terms of value added, an indicator of productivity in each industry, and the number of employees, an indicator related to tax revenue and consumption, and their relationship to the total number of employees. Industrial statistics were obtained from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) website, and statistical analysis was conducted using Excel. The correlation coefficients between the value added and the number of employees in each industry and their totals, as well as the correlation coefficients between the value of industrial manufactured goods shipped and their totals, which represent the size of each industry as previously reported, revealed the following. When the trend of the total of each indicator is in an increasing trend, i.e., a growing process, a correlation coefficient of +0.3 or more for an industry sector indicates an increasing trend and a growing process, while a correlation coefficient of –0.3 or less for an industry sector indicates a decreasing trend and a declining process. When the correlation coefficient of the industry is close to 0, there is no increase or decrease in trend, indicating a stagnant process. On the other hand, if the correlation coefficient of each indicator is significant at +0.3 or higher, the indicator is in a declining trend, and if it is significant at –0.3 or lower, the indicator is in an increasing trend, indicating a growth process. When the correlation coefficient of the industry is close to 0, there is no increase or decrease in trend and the process is stagnant. When the increase or decrease in the aggregate trend of each indicator is small, i.e., a stagnant process, the correlation coefficient for the industry is also close to 0, but it is also close to 0 for both increasing and decreasing trends. Based on the above results, it is considered that the correlation coefficient of each industry sector to each aggregate is negatively skewed at the time of industry transformation in the industrial agglomeration structure of the region, whether in the growth process or in the decline process. Therefore, the method used in this study provides an important suggestion and is extremely useful in examining the restructuring of the industrial agglomeration structure, since the growth, stagnation, and decline processes of regional industries can be easily evaluated by using the correlation coefficients between the value of manufactured goods shipped, value added, and number of employees for each industry and their totals as indices. This is considered to be an important suggestion and extremely useful when considering the restructuring of the industrial cluster structure.